Personal Links

Flickr Photos

Who knew? part deux re-do

In my first “Who knew?” post, I included several quotes from the two women. In that case it was Martha Graham and Helen Keller. I realized tonight I did not include any quotes in my “Who knew? part deux” post.

In that second post, I commented on the friendship between Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt. Being adventuresome, outspoken, and intelligent women, they said many memorable and challenging statements during their lifetimes. I’ve chosen several of my favorites to share with you.

In my life I had come to realize that when things were going very well indeed it was just the time to anticipate trouble. And, conversely, I learned from pleasant experience that at the most despairing crisis, when all looked sour beyond words, some delightful “break” was apt to lurk just around the corner.

Amelia Earhart and Lockheed Electra (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On action and purpose:

The most effective way to do it, is to do it.

There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows, one of which rolls.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure , the process is its own reward.The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure , the process is its own reward.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn’t be done.

On kindness:

No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.

Amelia Earhart (Photo credit: San Diego Air & Space Museum Archives)

Advice for women:

A girl must nowaways believe completely in herself as an individual. She must realize at the outset that a woman must do the same job better than a man to get as much credit for it.

photo by quirkyjazz

Love of reading and school:

Like many horrid children I loved school, though I never qualified as teacher’s pet. Perhaps the fact that I was exceedingly fond of reading made me endurable. With a large library to browse in, I spent many hours not bothering anyone after I once learned to read.

Beauty:

After midnight the moon set and I was alone with the stars. I have often said that the lure of flying is the lure of beauty, and I need no other flight to convince me that the reason flyers fly, whether they know it or not, is the aesthetic appeal of flying.

*************************************************

Courage is the price that
Life exacts for granting peace.

The soul that knows it not
Knows no release from little things:
Knows not the livid loneliness of fear,
Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings.

Nor can life grant us boon of living, compensate
For dull gray ugliness and pregnant hate
Unless we dare
The soul’s dominion.

Each time we make a choice, we pay
With courage to behold the resistless day,
And count it fair.

poem by Amelia Earhart

(end of Amelia Earhart quotes)

***************************************************

Eleanor Roosevelt quotes:

On Light:

Fire burning bright (Photo credit: Droidicus)

What is to give light must endure the burning.

It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

Determination (Photo credit: Gulfu)

Courage and Fortitude:

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right– for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

Curiousity (Photo credit: elycefeliz)

Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart. Don’t be concerned about whether people are watching you or criticizing you. The chances are that they aren’t paying attention to you.

For it isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.

Life Lessons:

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.

The most important thing in any relationship is not what you get but what you give.

One thing life has taught me: if you are interested, you never have to look for new interests. They come to you. … All you need to do is to be curious, receptive, eager for experience. And there’s one strange thing: when you are genuinely interested in one thing, it will always lead to something else.

Learn Something New (Photo credit: roswellsgirl)

I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could.

Happiness (Photo credit: baejaar)

Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product.

Happiness (Photo credit: 4nitsirk)

I consider those are rich who are doing something they feel worthwhile and which they enjoy doing.

You rarely achieve finality. If you did, life would be over, but as you strive new visions open before you, new possibilities for the satisfaction of living.

It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death.